Lydia Davis Wins Man Booker International Prize
Published on 23rd May 2013
Hot on the heels of one international prize I posted about yesterday comes another, this one being the MAN Booker International Prize, which is awarded every two years for a body of work written in English by a non-UK author or widely available in English translations. Last night American writer Lydia Davis (left) became the latest winner, being selected from a shortlist of 10. Lydia Davis is best known as a short story writer and translator, having in fact written just the one novel. But she is not unique in that regard; Canadian Alice Munro, who won the award in 2009, is also a short story writer. Davis's stories typically run for between three and four pages, but some are as brief as a paragraph or less.
Right: The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis (check catalogue)
As winner of the MAN Booker International Prize, Davis collects a cheque for £60,000; given that the winner can also choose a translator to receive a further £15,000, I wonder can she collect that also as the translator of works by Proust and Flaubert amongst others?
Quoting from the Award announcement, "Her work has the brevity and precision of poetry. Sir Christopher Ricks, chairman of the judges, said her "writings fling their lithe arms wide to embrace many a kind. Just how to categorise them? They have been called stories but could equally be miniatures, anecdotes, essays, jokes, parables, fables, texts, aphorisms or even apophthegms, prayers or simply observations.""
Davis, the fifth recipient of the prize, has produced some nine collections of stories, and is currently professor of creative writing at the University at Albany in New York state.
Previous winners were American Philip Roth (2011), Canadian short story writer Alice Munro (2009), Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe (2007) and Albanian writer Ismail Kadare (2005).
What the Press have to say:
Man Booker International Prize 2013: Lydia Davis wins (UK Telegraph)
World's most concise short story writer Lydia Davis wins Booker International Prize 2013 (UK Independent)
Lydia Davis wins Man Booker International Prize (Los Angeles Times)